Well the season is upon us yet again! Congratulations to all of you who successfully avoided all that 2012 threw at you this year - commiserations to those of you who couldn't. Another action packed issue provides: an interview with El-Jefe; strategy tips on Forbidden Cities and AoR 3 and a challenge to turn those into Official Guides - who's going to snap up the GCs on those?; a veritable smorgasbord of tips and infor in the Tournament section - too much to mention here; same for Foundry - do those guys never sleep?; and consideration of the new Clan sitting rules. Something for everyone there!

Happy Holidays Freestylers. Apologies for the late issue, El_Jefe was a bit busy with admin things. But he managed to find the time to talk about the direction he wants CC to go, his interests outside of CC, and his secret plans for world domination.You Stay Classy, CC.

Want to get into the Mafia scene, but don't know how to play or even what it is? Consult these threads: Mafia Information, Mafia and You, and Rules and Terms of Mafia.Too much work? Too lazy to read through everything? No worries, you can always jump right into a game and ask for other players or the game runner to help guide you.

What is "Mafia"?Mafia, for those of you that don't know, is a game that generally takes place in a town, where the townspeople have to determine who the mafia (or "scum") is and lynch them via a majority vote during the day and the mafia try to kill everyone at night and bluff their way out of getting killed by the town.

Mafia NewsWith the recent addition of pancakemix to the mod team to support the Mafia forum, the possibility of mafia awards has once again be brought up here. Hopefully, we'll be able to have some sort of fun recognition thread or contest to celebrate another year of mafia fun.

Mafia CalloutsCalling all players interested! Some mafia games need some filling:

Advanced Roles and Strategy by safariguy5An electrifying role is discussed this game

The Lightning Rod

What is It?The Lightning Rod is a role where all night actions are redirected onto it. This happens regardless of possible roleblocks or other disruptive actions as the Lightning Rod ability is a passive role.

ExampleThe mafia send in a night kill, the cop investigates someone, the busdriver busdrives two people, and the doctor saves someone. All of these actions are redirected automatically to the Lightning Rod with the mod randomly picking one of the busdriver targets.

How to Play this RoleThe Lightning Rod is a very difficult role to balance. If the Lightning Rod is always a Lightning Rod and does not have any X-shot abilities to turn it on or off, this basically negates mafia nightkills and other town actions until the Lightning Rod is killed some other way. This usually means that the game will stall somewhat and the longer the Lightning Rod stays unclaimed, the higher the likelihood that town gathers incorrect information regarding investigations and protections. Therefore, a Lightning Rod loses much of its utility after the first night and should probably sacrifice itself for a lynch to prevent excessive town misinformation.

Q. I (smegal69) see you have Che Guevara as your profile pic....... so1. Was he a revolutionary leader or a terrorist?2. Are you using CC to recruit members for Jemaah Islamiyah?

I'm not familiar with #2. Che was a damn smart military strategist and rocked a cigar and beret like no one else.

Q. In the light of the recent banning of GLG, are there any others in the target sights for a life ban on CC?

Nope. Everything evaluated on a case by case basis.

Q. What is the single most important thing that needs to be done?

Engage new players better.

Q. When will we get 2 player team games and 12 player games?

Soon I hope. Both are on the list but require quite a bit of technical work so they are a ways down on the list of priorities.

Q. Is there any sort of mobile friendly version of the site in the works?

Yes but it is a big project so it will be a while.

Q. a/s/l?

33, male, Bali.

Q. Are you retired or did you leave another job to do this one?

No other jobs but some other fun projects in the works. Conquer Club is the focus

Q. Do you read any of the public forums for fun, or stick to the admin forums (like bugs and suggs, and the private mod forums)?

I have't spent enough time in public forums but I plan to.

Q. How do you approach challenges that occur in your daily life? What I (AndyDufresne) mean is, are you the type of person who jumps right in and gets their hands dirty while trying to figure everything out? Or perhaps do you first study possible scenarios and outcomes and figure out what is the best approach to the problem at hand? Or some other approach entirely?

Trial and error. Move fast, make mistakes.

Q. Do you think it would be better to allow freemiums access to 1 speed game a day?

Possibly. We are currently looking at the options to get new users more engaged and I think this (or some version of it) could be a key.

Q. Do you also not think cc should have a drunken ranter page where people can let off steam and not have post reported and banned when they go to log on again?

Excellent idea. Perhaps where the content is not permanently linked to their profile.

Q. Whose decision was it for Andy not to continue with CC?

Andy's. I would have loved for him to stay on.

Q. Why RDS for community manager?

He is passionate about the game and the community. He is fair and calm. He isn't on the 'no-fly' list.

Q. Why King Achilles to continue? Was this your decision?

Yes. I think King Achilles does a great job.

Q. If you could create a full time paid position on CC, what is the most pressing area that needs a dedicated staff member?

Developers and designers. Particularly to focus on mobile optimization.

Q. Why piggyback onto an old/defunct account and pretend it's your own? What do you have to hide?

I never expected to be in this position of authority at CC. I didn't want to scan 1000+ old games to see if I had written anything particularly unkind or embarrassing.

Q. Do you have a set of improvements in mind for the site? Which ones do you plan on implementing first?

The list is long. Small tasks involve minor tweaks and improvements. Medium term projects revolve around better engaging new users. Long term projects include a massive upgrade to the tournaments and clans functions.

Q. Boxers or briefs?

Boxers. No contest.

Q. What kind of music do you enjoy?

Eels, The National, Beirut, Bon Iver, The Middle East, Elliott Smith, City & Colour, Jeff Buckley, Glen Hansard. Usually gut wrenching sad songs or epic love songs. And I'm always up for a stellar dance party or any live music.

Q. What kind of sports do you enjoy playing, and which do you enjoy watching?

Q. Are you bothered by all the questions concerning your past on this site? Do the questions surprise you, or did you expect this?

I didn't expect it or I would have given it much more thought in advance. I wasn't expecting it to be such a public role. I thought I would be mostly focused on improving the game play experience for current players and attracting and engaging more new players. That is the kind of stuff I am good at and I like to measure success by boring metrics (# active players, # premium players, # new players etc). I'm now trying to figure out the appropriate balance of focus on this stuff and public appearances.

Q. What's the coolest thing you've done recently? (besides CC)

Swam with whale sharks off the coast of Java.

Q. When you made your user-name: Were you planning to take over the world or CC or both?

Global domination has always been my goal. I'll be a benevolent dictator. I promise

Q. How did you manage to become CC Admin? Did Lack propose you? Did you propose to Lack? Which past merits and achievements make you suitable for the role?

I pitched the idea to Lack once upon a time. He brought it back up many months later when he was getting busy with other projects.

I'm pretty thrilled with the times right now. Pirate times look cool in movies but I have a feeling the real thing was disgusting and depressing.

Q. Do you dress to the left or right?

I just mimed putting on pants to try to figure out the answer to this question. Right I think. Ask again in the next interview. I'll figure it out for sure the next time I have my pants off.

Q. As someone who, like myself (perchorin), lives in a less CC populated time zone, surely you can feel the need for a CC time clock! When can we expect this to happen?

CC Time Clock! I need it as well. I thought I was the only one. Let's make this happen.

Q. What will your animal persona be, and why was rds allowed to break rank and be a lame robot when he was supposed to pick a form of animal?

I wasn't aware of this animal tradition. My bad. I just asked a close friend and they suggested a raccoon or a wombat. I'm not comfortable with either of those. I'll settle for lemur.

Q. Do you plan to apply to join the Bullet-Proof Bandits?

I will consider it if they aggressively recruit me. Treat me like you would a totally unbiased IOC official.

Q. Where's the beef?

Alberta.

Q. lackattack mentioned a few more updates from him, anything near completion from either of you two? No pressure.

Updates coming! I promise.

Q. Will we keep up the SOS Africa sponsorship of Kelebogile? If so, then what can we expect this year for a fund-raising drive? If not, why not?

Yes. Will keep it up but not sure what the plans will be just yet. I'd love to see more cool fundraising ideas.

Q. Foundry, what is your opinion on the maps we have now? And do you ever look around the foundry at what is coming out soon? Something constructive about the maps we have now would be appreciated.

Love the maps. Trying my best to discover new ones now and then. Recently found Poker Club and enjoyed that a lot. Also Hive but it takes forever. Generally I stick with the more simple game options and I agree with many suggestions that we need an easy tool to classify maps as simple/medium/complex (or some form of that).

Q. Will you keep playing games now you are the boss?

Absolutely. More than ever.

Q. You mentioned a target in the announcement thread, how hopeful are you on reaching it or even beating it?

Hmmmm... I don't remember the timeline I put on it and I'm afraid to look. Fingers crossed.

Q. What is your stance on aliens?

We are not alone in the universe.

Q. If you had to pick one of these to best describe yourself, which one would it be?

Q. Which one are you most attracted to?DominatrixSchool girlCheerleaderThe ProvocateurLittle Miss InnocentAll of the above?

Cheerleader

Q. Will there be more or less transparency with you than with the previous regime?Hopefully more but I wasn't paying much attention to that sort of thing previously so you will have to be the judge. Give me a while to get comfortable and then let me know how it looks.

Q. Is this going to be the longest newsletter interview of all time?

You tell me.

Q. Will clans ever get their own tab? Perhaps with a medal counter like tournaments?

Yes. Definitely but not soon enough. It is a high priority item but requires a lot of work.

Q. Is the (current) programmer on CC? Or has he never done CC before?

He is new to CC.

Q. Are you looking to maintain complete integrity on cc or are you likely to give in to the sexual advances from the many "CC groupies"?

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

Q. Would you like to have received more interest from the community or do you prefer having missed the critical public eye?

It seems like there has been plenty. I'd be happy to be very low profile and let site growth and improvements be the measure of my performance.

Q. Now that you're working with mods, how many of them to you recognize/are familiar with when you were a regular user?

None. I was a lurker only. I just loved the game but really had no idea what a big active community there was.

Q. What is going to be the policy for placing maps into BETA going forward? Will there be a massive delay from time maps are OKed for BETA to when they will actually be uploaded for BETA play?

We are trying to dramatically improve the turnaround times for new maps to be tested.

Q. Are there any plans to update chipv's xml wizard for the foundry to make the tool more functional from suggestions?

Yes but it is another big project so will take some time.

Q. Do you intend to try to win back the mapmakers we lost to other sites? Going forward, how do you plan to work with our hardworking, valuable cartographers?

We will make the process easier and faster for them to add maps. We will add more players so maps get user feedback more quickly.

Q. Have you seen this map by Kabanellas? Will you make the necessary updates that will allow it to be made?

Wow. It looks epic. I had not seen it before and will look into what it needs.

Q. Will you allow members to buy smaller amounts of premium. Say 6 months for 15$ and 3 months for 10$?

Yes.

Q. Will you buy Cuba from the proceeds of CC?

I'm already in negotiations with Fidel.

Q. Will you allow supersize maps to be made again?

This is the first I've heard of this. Sounds good to me.

Q. Have you ever played Shogun/Samurai Swords? How about Axis & Allies?

I had a run with Axis & Allies once upon a time. It was fun but a bit too involved for me. I prefer games where someone new can get into and be competitive without excessive explanation.

Q. Besides playing Risk (duh), what other hobbies do you have?

Monopoly. I was in the Canadian Monopoly Championships once. Travel.

Q. What's your favorite drink?

Pimm's Cup.

Q. Can you explain dice randomness?!?

Those damn dice. I've had runs that can't possibly be random. But I've also had runs like that when playing the live game. For some reason it is 1000x more infuriating online because I'm sure there is a conspiracy or flaw in the program. I've seen the stats and had programmers assure me it is random but I'm pretty sure there is a higher power messing with us.

Q. If CC was a bar and they announced last call, would you buy us all a round of drinks?

Absolutely. Though I am usually passed out in a corner before last call.

Q. What are your plans for adding additional acronyms?

I have the power to invent acronyms? ILTSOOT!LMB has been one of my most used acronyms for years - it could work it into regular use on CC.

Q. How did you decide which mod to promote to admin?

Lots of advice from everyone involved (past and present).

Q. If you were given the choice of taking or rejecting a one-way trip to populate a Mars Colony, would you accept and go or would you reject and stay here in on Earth?

Reject. Too much fun still to be had here.

Q. How much do you know about the real life man/woman/boy/girl/monkey behind AndyDufresne?

I've never seen him and Karl Pilkington in a room together. Coincidence? I think not.

Welcome one and all to another helping of Strategy.

This is the stuff that's important, so listen up!!

This issue Jippd shares his wisdom on Forbidden Cities - which frankly I was pleased about because it was a map I struggled with. As a one off, we have also received an article by Ahava on AoR - would be interesting to hear what others think about that. These articles get us close to Official Guides and it would be interesting to see if anyone wanted to piggy-back on these good peoples' work to the extent of preparing guides for the Strategy Forum. First in, first served - get your GC medals now - just in time for Christmas! And for the rest of you, whether you too want to do a one off or you have aptitude to get more involved, sing out cause we need more Strategy content!

The other day I had the pleasure of playing Jippd (on NYC) and enjoyed a good lesson and a sound trouncing. As is my way, I had a quick look at his history and games and saw that he has a fondness for Forbidden Cities. Striking while the iron was hot, so to speak, I thought I'd be cheeky and send Jippd a quick PM with a few questions on the Forbidden Cities map, strategy and gameplay. To my astonishment, his response was quick, thorough and very enlightening. What's more, he's given me the authority to share this with all of you!

Click image to enlarge.

First a contextual point:

Jippd wrote:All of my comments regarding strategy will be limited to team games and 1 v 1 singles play.

So, how did you get into playing on this map?

Jippd wrote:I got into forbidden city playing team games with FOED. I used to play with MNDuke and others from FOED on that map. I think what interested me early on was the level of difficulty in reading connections on that map. When I was in FOED I had no idea what BOB or greasemonkey was so believe it or not I learned this map without any add ons. It is possible!

And for those of us that use IE, BOB simply isn't available. So, how do you play this map?

Jippd wrote:The general strategy to follow for Forbidden city is to pay attention to the borders of the map first. The map can play similar to cricket in that the bonuses around the outside edge of the map are often the decider of the game.

Can you be more specific?

Jippd wrote:Missionaries and Kuomingtang are the easiest bonuses to hold because they are 3 regions with 2 defense points. Then Boxers at 4 regions and 2 defense points followed by Li Rebels with 4 regions and 3 defense points.

Makes sense not to over-stretch unnecessarily.

Jippd wrote:These bonuses will generally come into play first in all games and they should be what you should focus on.

Is that the same regardless of the number of players?

Jippd wrote:In doubles and single 1 v 1 games the tower bonuses and the 8 nation alliance bonuses may come into play. In single 1 v 1 games the priests bonus, gardens bonus and inner courts bonus may also come into play. Games are usually decided based on those left and right side borders.

What about the drop?

Jippd wrote:You should start where you are strongest and hope that you get a bonus before the enemy does . It is important to pay attention to connections and make sure that you are covering all attack possibilities. Too many times have I seen people miss an attack path or think an attack path existed that didn't and it has cost them the game.

So studying each move before making it has an extra-special meaning here. What about forting?

Jippd wrote:It is also important to try to utilize the ability to fort troops from the center of the map through the emperors and empresses. This is often key to get troops from the useless center of the map to the outside of the map where most of the action occurs.

I suspect that there are those who have lost by concentrating on the centre and missing the outside. Kind of the opposite to chess! What do you consider to be the key regions?

Jippd wrote:The key regions on this map on the left side are: KMT and Japan and on the right are USA and prince tuan. Japan and USA are key corners of the map that seal off access to the left/right side from the top. Prince Tuan and KMT are important because they can hit many regions on each side. If you hold this then your enemy has to maintain many defense positions along the right/left side of the map or risk leaving you easy 1s to hit.

Sounds easy when you say it, lol! What about trips?

Jippd wrote:If you are playing trips on this map the key is to drop your opponent to 11 regions before they drop your team to 11 regions. You need to find somewhere you can drop your opponents next player sub 12 and also drop near the action around the outside edges of the map. This is often the trickiest part for trips games.

And quads?

Jippd wrote:Quads games mean everyone starts with 8 regions. This takes away the ability for the first team to drop the opposing teams deploy by 1 by only taking one region. That is why I prefer this map quads over trips. Quads is the perfect setting on this map.

You wouldn't be too keen on dubs then?

Jippd wrote:For doubles each player starts with 19 regions which is not ideal for me. I personally feel that deploys of 5 or more give too much advantage to the team who goes first. General strategy still applies here.

So I guess singles are out of the question for you?

Jippd wrote:Most 1 v 1 games on this map are decided by whoever got the first turn. With 25 starting regions each and a deploy of 8, first turn often gets to do too much damage and drop the deploy of their opponent. I would not recommend this map for 1 v 1.

What about FOW?

Jippd wrote:FOW adds an interesting twist on this map but it definitely increases the difficulty level. I would get to know the map first then play it with FOW.

So, getting back to strategy - I always felt that the towers were important but seemed hard to hold?

Jippd wrote:The towers are hard to hold but depending on the drop they may be a good possibility. Especially if the map is fog an opposing team may miss it if you grab the tower bonus. I would only consider going for this bonus if you dropped 3/4 of them or controlled a good portion of the surrounding regions. There are lots of territories that border these towers (8 regions) which make them easy to be broken.

What about the Dynasties bonus?

Jippd wrote:I have barely ever seen the dynasties bonus come into play. Usually there are easier, more important, bonuses to fight over than killing the neutrals on the dynasties. Half of the dynasties always start out as neutral 3. The most important function the dynasties serve is to allow those troops to get forted along that yellow line to the bottom right/left corners.

What about spoils?

Jippd wrote:The strategy doesn't change much on this map depending on spoils. I would say general spoil strategy exists on this map.

No spoils: Drop troops where you can take a bonus. Break the enemy bonuses before taking your own bonuses. Drop troops where they can't be trimmed by the enemy. Always try to get first strike over your opponents. Try to maximizing attacking ones and defending with 2s.

Escalating: Same as above but you need to make sure you allow a card spot for each player by the area where the bonus fight is occurring. Taking a spoil your turn is just as important as preventing the next player on the opposing team from spoiling and helping the next player on your team ensure an easy spoil. Three parts for every turn. The key is to not get greedy and over assault, leaving little leftover troops for another attack. Also try to not leave easy 1s for your opponents to take cards.

Flat Rate: Same as escalating but you also need to hope to get those lucky 8 and 10 sets.

Nuclear: I play nuclear the same as no spoils. It is not NECESSARY to card. If you are carding or holding cards pay attention to what you hold. Make sure you don't take territories you can nuke and try to trap your opponent on those territories so you can take their troop count down with nukes instead of attacks. There are times where it may be advantageous not to card. If you hold many bold nuclear spoils, you may want to try not to card so you won't have to nuke yourself. It depends how much damage those nukes will do.

Wow, that advice on spoils is incredible. Not only do you tell us how to play Forbidden Cities, but you tell us how to play the game FULL STOP! Thank you for your selfless generosity!!

Age of Realms 3: Mayhem (often abbreviated to AoR 3) is a conquest-style map. It's the third map in DiM's Age of Realms map series. The great thing about this series is that you can clearly see how all of the maps are related, but each one has its own individual game-play. For AoR 3, you begin with 1 or 2 Castles (dependent on the number of players), from which you expand across the board picking up bonuses. Each of the castle's areas (with the exception of Sanctuary) has four bonuses - 2 runes, and 2 villages. These bonuses add up quickly, so getting them is often more important than getting cards. For simplicity's sake, everything here will be how a normal 1v1 game on AoR 3 is played, so you will start with 2 Castles.

Click image to enlarge.

Strategy on this map varies if you mix up the settings, but general game-play is the same.

To start, here's a quick summary of the castles and their areas. Each castle gets +4 auto-deploy per turn.--Sanctuary: Having a Sanctuary drop can be an easy win if you know how to use it. Too often have I seen people dropped on Sanctuary lose because they are clueless to its use. Sanctuary doesn't have the same bonuses as the other castles. Instead of having runes and villages, the Sanctuary is surrounded by terits ringed in red, called Blood Water terits. Each of these Blood Water terits gives you +1 drop for having a castle + blood water terit. So having 2 castles and 2 blood water terits, you will have a +4 drop on top of region count. The great thing about these terits is that they can be attacked directly from Sanctuary, so there's no need to try and get a terit that borders them in a more conventional way (i.e. Aoria borders Life Rune 1). Once you have a blood water terit, you can use it to attack the village ports (Ieme, Duht, Voigth, Sler, Aosa, Vesk, Qasr, Ikalu and Eon). Unfortunately, blood water terits lose 10 armies per turn, so be careful what you advance onto them! They can also be bombarded back to 1 neutral by any of the village ports.--Aoria: Aoria is a great castle to get, as you can get a pretty easy early bonus by grabbing Life Rune 1. Runes give you +2 bonus for each Castle/Rune pair you have. But, DiM didn't want it to be that easy to get an early bonus! Life Rune 1 always starts a neutral 6, making it somewhat difficult to get if your dice decide to take a vacation. For holding every region on Aoria's island, you get a +2 bonus, on top of the bonuses for the runes and villages.--Borun: Borun is one of the castles that gives you an added incentive to hit some extra neutrals. You can easily grab the runes and villages, and then for an added bonus, you can grab terits in sets of 4 for a +1 bonus - and the castle, runes and villages count towards this bonus! But watch out, you don't want to leave any 2s in Borun, as each of the non-important terits (i.e. castles, villages, and runes) lose 1 troop per turn.--Ghyr: As I was told by rdsrds2120 when I first started playing the AoR maps, Ghyr is another exception to the general statement I made about the castle's areas having 2 runes and 2 villages each. He also explained to me that Ghyr is a great starting point because of it has access to that one extra village. Ghyr has easy access to 3 villages, rather than just 2. And Ghyr is similar to Borun in that you get an extra bonus for holding terits within its borders and all non-important terits lose 1 troop per turn. For every 5 terits in Ghyr's area, you get a +1 bonus, so you can easily get more bonuses in Ghyr than you can in any of the other castles.--Mua: Mua can be a great starting point, as it allows for a straight shot to get both runes - just grab Duisch, then Ice Rune 2, then Ice Rune 1, and you get a +4 bonus per castle you hold. Mua's non-important terits (like Borun's and Ghyr's) lose 1 army per turn, and similar to Aoria, DiM made Mua's runes hard to get by making Ice Rune 2 a neutral 6 to start and Ice Rune 1 a neutral 5 to start.--Figye: Figye is, in my opinion, one of the worst castle's to start on. The neutrals are smaller, but the bonuses are more spread out, meaning that taking them is harder to do. Figye's easiest bonus to get early on is Forest Rune 1, which means going through a neutral 3 on Lof, followed by a neutral 2. Figye (like Aoria) gives you a bonus for holding the entire island, however, the +4 bonus usually isn't worth the trouble you would need to go through to get it.--Xi: Xi is a special island to start on, as it is the only castle that you can bombard from. Xi can bombard any terit within its borders down to a neutral 1, making it extremely easy to take more bonuses BUT makes it extremely easy for others to know where you are from reading the game log in a foggy game. Xi's easiest bonus to get is Rock Rune 2, as you only need to go through a neutral 3, 2 (Bisd, and Rock Rune 2 respectively) for a rune bonus. Xi (like Aoria and Figye) gives you a bonus for holding every terit within its borders, but, similar to both of those, the troops needed to take all of those terits makes the +2 bonus pretty useless.

Deploys:In an automatic deploy game, each castle starts with 3 troops, so in manual deploy, you have 4 to deploy. Deciding where to deploy can be difficult if you don't understand the basics of the map and how each castle's area functions. Each castle has its strengths and weaknesses, although there are definitely some castles that will give you an early advantage. In my opinion, the best castles to be dropped on are (in order): Sanctuary, Aoria, Ghyr, Borun, Mua, Xi, Figye. Whether you are playing with automatic or manual deploys, you should pick only one castle to stack. Splitting your troops gives you a smaller stack for killing opponents with, and you only need to expand from one castle for the first few rounds, meaning that you can let your other castle's auto-deploy stack up.

Spoils:I've never played AoR with nuclear spoils, so I can't really comment on that at all, however from my experience, the other three options for settings are pretty equal when it comes to planning your strategy. In general, if you are playing with no spoils, you will want to make sure you get as many bonuses as you can, as quickly as you can. Having the larger drop will be the deciding factor of your game. Escalating and flat rate spoils are about equal. The bonuses you get from the runes and villages will quickly outweigh the spoils, because the game will not go long enough for escalating spoils to be worth much.

Forts:When I first started learning this map, I played with unlimited forts. As I learned the maps and got better at them, I started playing with chained forts. Personally, I prefer playing with chained forts. From a strategic point-of-view though, unlimited forts allows you the opportunity to fort your auto-deploy off of both castles to better places to attack from. Chained forts limits you to choosing where you need the troops the most, so knowing the map comes into play.

Fog of War:Until you know the map, you should probably stick with playing it sunny, just like with any other map. Once you have a good understanding of the map and can adequately read and understand the game log and how the bonuses work, try playing it foggy. Key things to look at when playing AoR 3 foggy are the beginning of a player's turn, when their bonuses are listed. For example, if you see that in Round 1, someone took 1 terit, and in Round 2, they had -10 added to ?, it means they are on Sanctuary. If you see they took 1 terit in Round 1, and the next turn they have +4 troops added to ?, +4 troops added to ?, received 2 troops for holding ? and received 2 troops for holding ?, they have Aoria, and they took Life Rune 1. This is what makes understanding each of the castle's areas and the bonus system so important when playing with Fog of War.

Trench Warfare:I've played this map both with and without trench. Personally, I love playing with trench, but from experience, have decided it's not the best setting to use on AoR 3. It automatically guarantees that if someone gets a Sanctuary drop, they can get all of the blood water terits (there are 7 total) and have an immediate 17 drop that you can't do anything about. As a result, trench adds in a certain luck factor that otherwise is not there.

Hello again my friends, and welcome to your favorite part of the Newsletter, "War Games", where you can find information about CC Tournaments!

The TPA3 Cup Design Contest is now over. Congratulations to all the winners! I would announce who they are, but I don't want to take the spotlight off of Dave's TPA Wrap. Scroll down and check it out!

In this issue you will find another one of my little retrospectives, this time featuring the tourneys of 2006. You will find another installment of Dave's Tournament Tips, as well as the longest-running continuing series in the Dispatch, Join This? Or Not! by WC4 James.

But first, turn your attention to an article by generalhead. This very productive writer is officially a Foundry reporter, but he has twice now produced a wonderful article for us here in War Games, and is working on his third!

You are in the last round of winning a tournament. There is sweat running down your brow. You hesitate to push the keyboard button wondering if you are making the right move. You know if you make one wrong move your opponent wins the game and gets the trophy.

Ahhhh, you must be in a tournament. One major difference between playing regular games and playing in a tournament is the level of competition. Most guys who play in a tournament have one goal in mind, to win the tournament and get the trophy. These members who play in a tournament are usually more serious (but still very friendly) than in regular games. You can consider regular games as casual play compared to tournament games. The level of competition higher than in normal games. Yes you get serious players in normal games too but what are they fighting for? Their points go up and down, up and down. In a tournament you have a tangible item that you are fighting for: that beautiful illustrious gold gleaming tournament trophy. Ahhhh! what a prize, something you can put on display go go along with your other medals.

There is only one problem with winning your first tournament, once you win one trophy you just want to win more. This is evident by seeing the same players in most tournament games. That is the problem though: every one that plays in the tournament wants to win. If you are playing in a 32 player tournament then it is you against 32 other highly skilled players. That means you have around a 3% chance of winning. Not only do you have to worry about the level of competition, but you also have to worry about two other major factors. The double dd's will always come into play in tournament games especially one on one: the drop and the dice. You must worry about the double dd's in every round. You are not just playing one game, you are playing a series of games. You can have three great games in a four game tournament, but if you get bad dice or a bad drop in just one of those games you are toast, no trophy for you.

On a personal note when I first decided to start playing in tournaments I knew the level of competition would be high. I have played in a few regular games where players got really competitive, would swear and just say rude things. When I first decided to play in a few tournaments I was afraid that it would be a group of people who were really competitive and maybe even rude. To tell you the truth though all of the people that play in tournaments are some of the nicest people on this web site. I have never been sworn at or talked down to in any tournament that I have ever played in. Not only the fact of winning the trophy keeps me playing tournaments but it is also the fact that the players in these tournaments are friendly.

If you decide to try a few tournaments you will notice that you see a lot of the same old players in these tournaments. You may think to yourself, gee I have no chance to win. Even the players who play tournaments all of the time have the same dd's you contend with as you do. So never think to yourself that I don't have a chance to win a tournament so I won't join. If I can win a tournament, you can too. I hope to see you in a tournament in the future.

Every now and then I wander the archives and find some interesting trivia. Here's some things I saw among the first tournaments back in 2006, when they were still an unofficial activity with no special status:

2006, of course, had the first tournament of all, hosted by XI Games and Scarus. (We recently had an article about in in Issue 77 of the Dispatch. Have another look at that for some impressions from that first tourney.)

The first tournament with a premium giveaway was hosted by wacicha during May and June of 2006. This tournament showed wacicha's dedication and class. Originally, only one player was supposed to win a premium prize. However, when a player dropped out of the final, wacicha jumped in to replace him, and subsequently won the game. He then decided to buy premium for all four of the remaining players, rather than let them leave with a feeling that they got burned!

The first team tournament was xiGAMES Doubles Tourney, and the first tournament with an enhanced graphic in Post 1 was Highborn's Doubles Tourny, which launched on June 24th of that year. In case you're not actually following all these links, I just want to show you the graphic:

2006 also saw the first abandoned tournament: Pilate's Canada Day Tournament Ironically, Pilate's tournament was the first to benefit from the possibility to create tournament games separate from regular games. This new feature was apparently introduced around August 11, 2006, around the same time that Highborn was made the first-ever Tournament Director.

The Guerillas Double Elim was launched on August 14th of 2006. It was the first Double Elim, and the first to use the forum poll feature to query the players about what direction to go next with something.

In newsletter #80 I detailed the results spreadsheet for TPA2 scores and coding to update it with an individual tournament results. This does not, however cope with the change that was introduced after TPA1 to select the best scores from a number of scores. For instance there are only 8 Premier tournament scores allowed from the 13 actual premier tournaments and only 16 from the 28 Standard tournaments.

The problem with doing this within the main coding system is that the checksums would be compromised, so I have decided to do this using an additional routine that is accessed from a button on the main spreadsheet. The process of working out the coding follow the same sequence that you would do manually; for instance:

Check each player in turn;

Check the number of Premier and Standard tournaments completed against the allowed number;

If the number is exceeded then get all the tournament scores of that particular type;

Sort them into order;

Take away the sum of all the lowest scores above the maximum number allowed from the total.

Done!

In doing the coding it is straight forward until we get to the sorting. For instance (with description within the coding);

'Select Premier and Standard Columns, icol being th enumber of these column totals For icol = 4 To 5

'Select the Maximum Number of Tournaments and call it iMax iMax = Cells(2, icol).Value

'Scan down the columns to see if the maximum number has been exceeded For irow = iPlayerRow To iPlayerRow + iPlayerTotal

If Cells(irow, icol).Value > iMax Then 'maximum number exceeded

'put this number into the column next to the palyers' namesCells(irow, iListStart + icol - 2).Value = Cells(irow, icol).Value

We are now at the position of getting the scores and putting them into a table or array. I would normally use an array, but sorting is easier in excel, so I decided to use 1 table of 30 rows (higher than the 28 max standard tournaments within the spreadsheet itself). This has the added advantage of being easier to check when testing;

We can sort using the Excel sorting system. An easy way of getting the coding is to manually create a Macro, select the table and sort. Then look at the coding used by the macro and simply copy it into your programme. After sorting in reducing order we sum the scores above the permitted maximum and subtract them from the total score - this coding was taken from the Internet and I still do not understand the format!

'Reduce the total and adjust the number of tournaments to iMax Cells(irow, iListStart + 1).Value = Cells(irow, iListStart + 1).Value - BJ7 Cells(irow, iListStart + 2).Value = iMax End If Next irow Next icolEnd Sub

And that is it. I access this routine from a button on the spreadsheet. To put in a button, see my archive Archive and check out number 10 in my series (Newsletter #66).

(These "tips" are ones that I have tried to make it a bit easier in managing my own tournaments. I am sure there are different and better methods than these, so please let me know. Any queries on the above I'll be glad to respond to! Please note that I use Excel 2003, so there may be variation in the menu instructions if you have other versions of Excel)

TPA 1: State of PlayAll the final games for TPA1 are out and when they finish, presumably by the next edition, we will know the winner - it's been a long journey!

TPA 1 StandingsTPA Season 2: State of PlayNo tournament has finished since the last newsletter.

TPA 2 Standings

TPA Season 3Yes - TPA3 now has a new cup!Congratulations to ndrs for his winning entry! Ndrs will gain 6 months' Premium courtesy of the Tournament Department.

In 2nd place is ISN2 with his entry:ISN2 will be rewarded with a Conquer Cup entry.

In 3rd place is ManBungalow with his Cup:All of the Top 3 finishers receive a General Achievement medal.

Many thanks for the excellent work of all eleven entrants who made it a very close race!

The remaining entries were:

There are now 13 tournaments under way with 3 tournaments open for entering. These latter ones are:26-Nov Premier peanutman - Peanut's 3X Double Elimination - Doubles10-Dec Premier merch313 - Natural Born Killers 8 Player Terminator24-Dec Standard or Premier - Dukasaur - DK's 2nd Annual Christmas Quads with WC4J. Get your team together now in readiness for the hectic gameplay that will begin as soon as the Christmas map is available - playing all other teams at once! I doubt I'll even have time to open my presents!

Storm the objectives in another of BluU's unique 8-player Terminator competitions. Players gain the majority of points for holding Kiev and Vilnius at the end of Round 6, while also earning points for winning the games. The featured maps are Napoleonic Europe, Rail Europe, and WWII Eastern Front. There's room for sixteen players and a guaranteed three games for everyone, so don't miss out as the "Hold the Capitals" series continues!

Find a friend, select your favorite TV series, choose a time slot, and battle for prime time dominance! In this creative eight-team Doubles competition put on by PaRKoN, wins correlate to increases in percent viewership, while losses represent losses in viewership. Players choose their favorite map and settings and compete in 2v2 play. After three "days" (rounds), only one show can survive as the most popular Prime Time show on television!

Endure some of the cruelest moments of 20th century war in Arama86n's Great War tournament. From the infamous amphibious fiasco of Gallipoli to the entrenched, frigid stalemates of the West, the challenges of war are simulated as players take on 6-player Nuclear-spoils Terminator games with increasingly difficult settings. Round 1 will see games with no "special gameplay" settings, but as rounds progress players will have to face Fog, Trench Warfare, and Adjacent! The last man standing survives the insanity.

It's the second part of the Four Hills extravaganza, the time-honored German-Austrian winter skiing competitions. PereiroSaus welcomes players to the mountain-nestled, historic towns of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in southern Bavaria. Players select their favorite map and settings and face off in 1v1, single-elimination play, fighting for points that carry over across all four tournaments. Earn the most points and you can deem yourself worthy of skiing down the iconic Zugspitze of the Bavarian Alps! Up to 64 ambitious skiers are welcome!

If you're craving tourney action now, check out the Requests for Immediate Players section of the tournament forum. You can be playing very quickly after signing up as a reserve.

Foundry dispatch is a little light this issue, but with good reason. Everyone is off getting blottoand ready for the holidays. But we have the usual run down of maps in development, anothercompetition for you, generalhead gives us his opinion on the Christmas map and a few stockingfillers. Lastly, and this is a late addition, but with the cairnswk interview coming in the next edition, I bring to you our own one. generalhead wanted to speak to him as he is one of the best.Might give you all some follow on questions for the main one next issue. The competition has got some new rules, so make sure you read them. Lets leave now in a chorus of Santa' favourite song.

But set your alarm clocks for next issue. A massive foundry dispatch section is being prepared with lots of goodies for all the good girls and boys.

To end the year of 2012 we though we would conduct an interview on the map foundries most prolific map maker. Cairnswk has over thirty completed maps that are in play and he continues to work on more.

Check out the 30 maps article written by Koontz 1973 in the Conquer Club dispatch issue# 81. Here is a link to the Issue: CC Dispatch Issue 81

Here is the interview.

Can you explain your avatar, what is in the glass and why a butterfly.The butterfly represents the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly which is native to this region of North Queensland. The drink is Midori and Green Chartruese Highball, one measure each of Midori and Green Chartreuse over ice, squirt of lemon or lime topped with Lemonade.

What prompted you to be a map maker?The Cairns Coral Coast map was my first map. I was prompted to have my home region represented on CC.

What is the easiest thing for you to complete in the map making process?Getting the creative ideas together for a new map. the remainder going through the foundry is the hard part.

What is the hardest thing for you to complete in the map making process?Explained above.

What is easier, getting game play or graphics finished?Getting graphics finished is easier for me, because gameplay allows graphics development and progress.

What is your preferred program for creating graphics?Fireworks, because the tools are so easy to use, unlike PS. Having said that Fireworks does not have the same finishing capabilities that Illustrator or Coreldraw (to some extent) has.

Do you xml code your own maps?On most I do! It is a welcome break from graphics. I also like doing the xml early in the development so i can see how the map will look and whether the 888s test will be OK. Then when graphics stamp comes, xml can be easily and quickly completed and put forward for checking.

How many hours of research to you generally put into a historic map?I depends on how you want to represent the scenario. Usually there is at least 2 weeks research looking at different aspects of a battle and configuring that plan going forward.

What is the shortest time you have had a map go through the foundry?That i can't tell you because it is something i don't keep track of. I don't pride myself on having any shortest development time for maps since a map for me is a creative process and it has it's time in development like a painting does. With that, you can over-develop the creative process and one must determine when it is time to end the process.

What is your favorite map that you have created, and why?I would have to say Poison Rome because it is one of the most unique concept maps that CC has. Treasures Of Galapagos is my favourite graphics map.

What is your favorite map that some one else has created, and why?I think Tisha would have to be awarded that honour simply because of the graphics quality of her artwork in the Americas Series.

Out of all your maps, which one do you play the most?None really, i play them when i have a penchant for them, or when they come out of BETA.

Again, your maps, favorite one, least liked one?None, i like them all - they're all mine by degree of skill, design, craftsmanship, concept and ego

What do you think of the current battle royale map?I believe samuelc812 did a great job of it. But for me it takes too long to play.

What do you like about the map foundry?I like the editing process. I like other make mistakes and usually people love telling you when mistakes are made or when a map doesn't suite their conditions - including when they get bad drops or dice seeming that the map is unbalanced.

What do you think needs to change in the map foundry?There are several things i would change about the foundry, but i don't believe this is the appropriate place to air them.

Do you have any advice for new map makers?Have good novel ideas, work hard, give most people want they want for a map, but keep something (at least 5%) for yourself.

Do you have any plans for any out of the ordinary maps for next year or do you plan your maps day by day?Well, there are several projects on the back burner - Rail South America, Ethiopia, Perth, Mirror Mirror, Three Blind Mice - but getting the current projects - Spanish Armada, Gallipoli, Moscow, and the big one Massacre à Paris - completed are the priorities.

Being one of the most prestigious map makers you have over 30 completed maps in play. How many maps didyou actually start that have not been finished?There is probably about another dozen that i had ideas for but haven't followed through with including Treasure Island, Snowfight, Battle of El Alamein.

Finally, i want to say this - I am a bit of old rough unpolished diamond at times, and that can comes through by some of the replies i fire back at folk. But please don't think i am not interested in your ideas. I may not always like what you suggest, but that shouldn't stop you from suggesting it and justifying it. I also want to thank everyone who has ever been part of games or map commenting in the last nearly 6 years.Your efforts are appreciated.

Cairnswk we at the foundry want to say thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

On a personal note though, I want to thank you for all the wonderful maps that you havegiven us. You have made Conquer Club a better gaming site by giving us so many great maps to play on. Some people don't realize that a map can take years to make, and hours and hours of time spent on developing graphics and game play. we all look forward to seeing what you put out in the future.

Hello fellow Conquer Club fellows and felines. It is almost that time of the year again, Christmas time (I know ). You know what that means. No I am not talking about candy canes and tinsel. It is almost time for the ever so popular Christmas map. We all have played this map or thought about playing it at one time or another. I would like to share some information about the famed Christmas map.

CreatorMrBennFromUnited KingdomMrBenn stands at a whopping one foot six inches tallJoinedWed Nov 21, 2007MrBenn is a foundry all star and is a seven time map achiever.It is said that MrBenn made this map because he always wanted a puppy for Christmas, but all he ever got year after year was a new blue hat.I don't know if you knew this but MrBenn is the second cousin twice removed from Santa Claus's number two elf.One interesting fact about this map is that the presents where drawn by MrBenns children and the tree is made of their hand prints.Released: 2010-12-21Territories: 71Special Features: Victory Conditions, Losing Conditions, Bombardments, Starting Positions, Killer Neutrals, Autodeploy

Map Rules- Polaris border all other starts and resets to neutral (20) if held- Hold five starts to win the game- You need to hold at least one advent calendar window or you will be eliminated- Window 25 can bombard all other windows and it resets to neutral (25) if held- Windows can bombard adjacent numbers (ex. 5 bombards 6 and 4)- Gifts can bombard the 25th window- Gifts one way attack the small gift (with the same color) hanged to the tree.- Main Gifts give you a +1 autodeploy

BonusesHold 3 decorations = +1Hold 4 decoartions = +2Hold 5 decorations = +3etcLet us thank MrBenn for a map that we all can enjoy during the holidays.What could come next from MrBenn, a Thanksgiving day map?

The Christmas skin for the Knights map should be up and running any day now.

New foundry icons have been produced by thenobodies80. These icons are displayed to let everyone know what stage a map is in development.-Draft status-Game play-Graphics-XML-Beta

Ever wondered how to do something in GIMP. Well the best place to go is online. Some amazing video tutorials can be watched from youtube. Here are some of my favourites.

Have you ever wondered how to play a certain map. Well, have you tried looking here or here? Their are some very useful guides on how to play maps. All have been written by members of the community for the community. So why is this in the foundry section of the dispatch you may ask? Well with only 52 official (many more unofficial) guides for 224 maps in play, we seem to have a shortage of them. For the last couple of years, the foundry has produced over 20 maps a year with no slow down in sight, so we are only becoming more and more behind with this. So over the next year, a push needs to be made to try and get these up to date. That may sound a lot of work but if only one person takes this on, it very well maybe, but if 150 people try to do this, well then, we are in for some interesting discussions on how to play the game and a lot of fun. A good place to start is always in the foundry forums. Just looking in the threads for maps that have been quenched or even in beta can give lots of clues as to how to play a map. If you have never played Kings Court 2, an interesting discussion is going on now between a few players and the map maker on how certain territs come into play. nolefan5311 thinks the planes in 1982 makes for the best way to win that map. Is he right or not? No one knows until a strategy guide is written. Another way to help out is to look at maps in the main foundry with this icon . These are the maps going through the game play side of things. Discussions between map makers and the community to bring the best way forward.

Here is hoping that some of you take up this challenge for the new maps as well as some of the old ones.

1 new map to play on today. thebastard started this map a long time ago, left and stopped it. thenobodies who had put in a lot of time to help him finished it of. This one took a lot of time to get finished. Well done nobodies.Baltic Crusades.

Click image to enlarge.

5 maps quenched in the last two weeks, in fact 5 maps where quenched within 5 minutes of each other. Congratulations to:Flapcake for getting two quenched.

Last issue Swifte complained that the competition was harder , well it could not of been that hard as he won it.Well done Swifte. Have a banana on us.

So what do we have for this issue. Pretty simple really. Below are two images of my Rorke's Drift map. The top one is the original one which we all play on, but the bottom one has had 5 changes made to it. Can you spot them all?

Now onto the rules. Do not post any information into the dispatch thread. You all have 72 hours to find the 5 differences. Send me the answer via PM (koontz1973). First five to do so will be entered into a draw to determine the winner. I will announce the winner at the end of the 72 hour period. Anyone who posts the answers in the thread cannot win, even if they did.OriginalMessed up mapSend me the answers as a clear precise description or you can circle in red like this.Sorry nobodies, I liked this picture so stole it from you.

Happy gaming everyone, whatever map takes your fancy.

Happy gaming everyone, whatever map takes your fancy.

It's been another fortnight of action as we welcome in the festive season with tonights Platoon Report. The highlight of late has been the unveiling of the Clan Sitting Rules by the Clan Directors. Account-sitting has been a contentious issue for a goodly while yet, with Clan members being involved in some significant cases, so the CD's thought it sound to outline the Guidelines for what is and isn't permissible with regards to Sitting when within the purview of Clans. The rules have generated a spate of discussion, with already over 22 pages of replies at the time of going to press, so our itinerant reporter Swifte is here to give us a run-down of the Rules, and the main points from the community reaction.

In other Developments, I present the latest from the 1v1 Challenge, and wax philosophical on Conquerors Cup 3!

If there are any wars or related events that you'd like to bring to the attention of the newsletter, I urge you to send me a snippet of what you'd like covered to spotlight you clan, or indeed compose an article for the Dispatch yourself!

The hottest topic in the clan world since the last dispatch has certainly been the announcement of the new Clan Sitting rules. The new rules were posted by Clan Director Nicky15 on Thursday, December 6th, and came into effect on Monday, December 10th. Since that time, the post has generated nearly 350 responses and 5330 views, which at roughly 1,000 active clan players means enough views for everyone to have read it 5 times – so we’re all perfectly clear now, right? No? Well, here they are again for those that missed them, or need a 6th reading (I have put each in my own words, but I have done my best to capture the essence of each rule- the official Clan Sitting Rules are available here):

As a rule, clan members must take all their own turns, unless on a pre-announced vacation, or an emergency arises.